The world’s largest Non-Fungible token (NFT) marketplace, OpenSea, has seen its monthly trade volume in Ether (ETH) exceed $3.5 billion for the first time ever, with just two weeks left in January 2022.
According to data from Dune Analytics, OpenSea has now surpassed the all-time high of $3.42 billion set in August 2021 to establish a new all-time high, surpassing the $3.5 billion mark in Ether trading volume.
OpenSea’s record-high daily volume was on Sunday, according to Dune Analytics, where the marketplace saw its trading volume hit an all-time high of $261 million. Also to note, so far in January, OpenSea has broken $169 million in trading volume for each day.
What you should know
- The surge in NFT trade volume appears to be fueled by the price increase in Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and its sibling collections, Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) and Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC). BAYC, which has a large number of celebrity owners, is still the most popular NFT collection on OpenSea.
- As previously reported, OpenSea announced a $300 million Series C financing round early this year, led by venture capital firms Paradigm and Coatue. The fresh cash brought the firm’s valuation to $13.3 billion, with the intention of using it for product improvement and boosting employee numbers. This is a 786% increase to $13.3 billion from a valuation of 1.5 billion in July 2021.
- With a current valuation of $13.3 billion, it means OpenSea is more valuable than the likes of AMC Entertainment, Santander Consumer USA Holdings, American Airlines Group and GameStop.
- Although OpenSea is the biggest NFT marketplace in the world, new players are rapidly gaining ground. One notable competitor is the newly launched marketplace LooksRare, which launched earlier this month. This competitor is already outpacing OpenSea in terms of trading volumes, according to Dune Analytics’ data. However, there have been reports that the platform appears to be overflowing with wash trading to rig the token-based rewards system.
Although the cryptocurrency market started off the new year with bears having the final say, the NFT marketplace has been on a bull run and it does not seem to be slowing down anytime soon. As previously reported, Sultan Gustaf Al Ghozali, a 22-year-old computer science student from Semarang, Indonesia, became a millionaire by turning 1,000 selfies into NFTs and selling them on OpenSea. This has sparked conversations on social media with people arguing whether or not the NFT market is in a bubble.